"Zen mind is our true nature."

Monthly Archives: August 2012

They help you take action. This isn’t about positive thinking or motivating quotes. Those have their place in shaping your attitude and thinking. However, what motivates each of us is unique, so you need to have your own thoughts – those which are most effective at getting you going.

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity” – Albert Einstein

This is a decent quote, and it may help you look at the positive side of a situation, but what if it just doesn’t get you excited? Then you need to apply a little brainpower to make the idea your own. You have to make it a truly motivational thought for YOU.

Motivational thought of your own is the key.

“Making it your own” means experimenting with a good thought until you find a way to use it in your own recipe for motivation.

“The thoughts that work for you are the thoughts you need to be thinking.”

Learn your motivations. Experiment and get to know how your mind works. Here are a couple of examples that might help you get through difficult time.

1. Imagination-driven Motivation

This is very good one that I often use and works. If you’re in a difficult situation and don’t feel like dealing with it. As you sit there, you play around with the idea of opportunity coming from difficulty. Now, imagine yourself being interviewed someday about how you overcame this difficult time and tuned the difficult situation to your advantage. This is how you create your own motivational thoughts.

2. Sharing Motivation

I find that beyond just thinking a thought, if I explain it to someone, I get excited. That is my own self-motivation recipe. When I feel unmotivated about writing, for example, all I explain an idea I have for some article to my partner or friend. By the time I am done, I’m very motivated to work. Explain someone what you are about to do. This works!

3. Fear-Driven Motivation

You can get creative in your motivational experiments. Maybe thinking about being poor makes you get up and get to work. Maybe thinking about being sick and fat makes you get up and work out. The thoughts of situation that you do not want to see yourself to be in would make you motivated. If this work for you then imagine that. That is a great motivational thought.

4. Visual Motivation

If visual thoughts are more motivating than mental conversations, then use those. See pictures in your head that get you going. Or actually look at the picture in your hand help you get going.

5. Pride-Driven Motivation

Perhaps when people say you can’t do something, you do whatever it takes to prove them wrong. You may be related with something like this… This is a big turn-off for some people or turn-on for others. If this keeps you going, then it might be motivational to think about them saying you can’t.

6. Reward-Driven Motivation

When there is a truly uninspiring task you have to do, try promising yourself a reward for completion – make it one that really means something to you. Keep that thought in your mind to keep yourself motivated. A trip to the beach and even a simple bowl of ice cream may be some of your more powerful motivational thoughts.

Hope you find something that works for you. Keep doing that until achieving the things you want in life!

“To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” ~ Buddha

Your health is one of the most important things that you have to take care of. Because of this, a lot of people are doing everything they can just to get the perfect balance of chemicals in their body in order to obtain perfect health. You also need to consider that a lot of people find it hard to relax and control their emotions. You have to remember that anger can contribute to poor health and this is the emotion that you should minimize bringing at as much as possible. It is important that you should never be angry if you don’t need to be angry in order to balance your spiritual self to promote good health and good healing.

Today, a lot of people are not participating in different kinds of meditation in order to achieve balance in their emotions and also in their spirit. You have to consider that meditating can contribute a lot of great benefits for your body. With meditation, you will be able to relax more and you can effectively control your emotions and never be angry if you don’t need to be angry.

“Use your precious energy on something good.”

By not wasting precious energy on being angry, you can put all these negative energies and turn it into positive energies that can be useful in your everyday life. Always remember that…

“Nothing uses up a lot of energy more than anger.”

So, if you are having problems controlling your emotions, problems in relaxing, or you simply want to experience oneness with yourself, you have to try chakra meditation.

What is Chakra Meditation?

Chakra means spinning energy or spinning disk. This is the energy actually circulate around the spine.

Chakra meditation is gaining popularity today because of the health benefits it gives. Not only that you will have better health, but you will also live a happier life with chakra meditation. It is very important that you should do the chakra meditation everyday for at least 30 minutes each day in order to achieve spiritual healing as well as emotional stability.

Learning how to do chakra meditation is easy and everyone can do it. All you need is a quiet room where you won’t be disturbed for at least 30 minutes and a little bit of imagination and you’re off.

First of all, you have to consider that there are seven major chakras found in your body. These chakras are considered to be a very important part of your body that needs to be balanced in order to promote good health. The seven chakras are Shasrara (crown), Ajna (between brows), Vishudda (throat), Anahata (heart), Manipura (navel), Svadisthana (sacral), and Muladhara (root). You have to know how to open up your seven chakras in order to promote spiritual balance and good physical health.

To do this, you have to imagine a spinning light associated with each chakra. Start from Muladhara and work your way up to Shasrara. You also need to know what color of light is associated with each chakra.

You should also remember that it will need the right breathing practices in order to successfully do chakra meditation. These are some of the things you have to know about chakra meditation.

Don’t have time? 2 Minutes Zen Chakra Meditation

If you think you do not have time for chakra meditation, this is a good one for you. Few people have time for one hour, or even half-hour meditation session during the day. But, this can be worked into your day almost anytime, anywhere within 2 minutes!

Here is how.

Speak the first part of the phrase outloud as you inhale. Speak the second part of the phrase as you exhale. Take five seconds on the inhale, take five seconds on the exhale. Repeat each of the twelve incantation ten times. When you are finished you will feel centered and balanced. (Source: Ten Zen Second: Twelve Incantations for Purpose, Power, and Calm by Eric Maise)

(My energy)(is free of blockages)

(My root chakra)(is deeply grounded)

(My sacral chakra juices)(are creative and bold)

(My solar plexus)(feels mellow and calm)

(My heart)(is filled with love)

(My throat)(speaks the truth)

(My third eye)(intuits inner knowledge)

(My crown chakra)(projects inspiration)

(My chakras)(are spinning in alignment)

(My aura)(is colorful and clutter-free)

(My lightbody)(beams brightly)

(I am)(centered and balanced)

How are you feeling now?

Hope you feel much better than before. Let me know how it worked for you.

In Buddhism, anger is one of the three poisons – the other two are greed and ignorance – that are the primary causes of the cycle of samsara and rebirth. Purifying ourselves of anger is essential to Buddhist practice.

Understanding what anger really is the first step to deal with your anger. Here is something about anger that you may not know. Learn to grow.

1. Anger is Something Created By Yourself.

It’s important to understand that anger is something created by yourself. It didn’t come swooping out of the ether to infect you. We tend to think that anger is caused by something outside ourselves, such as other people or frustrating events. It is not very true.

“No one makes you angry. You make yourself angry.”

2. Anger is Self-Defensive.

Buddhism teaches us that anger is created by mind. However, when you are dealing with your own anger, you should be more specific. Anger challenges us to look deeply into ourselves. Most of the time, anger is self-defensive. It arises from unresolved fears or when our ego-buttons are pushed.

3. Anger is not “REAL”.

As Buddhists we recognize that ego, fear and anger are insubstantial and ephemeral, not “real.” They’re ghosts, in a sense. Allowing anger to control our actions amounts to being bossed around by ghosts.

4. Anger Is Self-Indulgent.

Anger is unpleasant but seductive. There’s something delicious about finding fault with something. Especially when our egos are involved (which is nearly always the case), we may protect our anger. We justify it and even feed it.

5. Express Your Anger Is Only Feeding The Seed Of Anger.

When you express your anger you think that you are getting anger out of your system, but that’s not true. When you express your anger, either verbally or with physical violence, you are feeding the seed of anger, and it becomes stronger in you. Only understanding and compassion can neutralize anger.

6. Allowing Anger Control You Is The Weakness.

Sometimes we confuse aggression with strength and non-action with weakness. Buddhism teaches that just the opposite is true.

Giving in to the impulses of anger, allowing anger to hook us and jerk us around, is weakness. On the other hand, it takes strength to acknowledge the fear and selfishness in which our anger usually is rooted. It also takes discipline to meditate in the flames of anger.

Adjustment is always needed since our environment constantly changes. Thus, it affects both the emotional and physical aspects of the person creating either negative or positive feelings. This can result to stress.

Stress is a part of everyday lives since time immemorial. But if an influence is positive, stress can motivate a person to an action resulting to a new consciousness and a stimulating new perspective.

But if the influence is negative, stress can create a feeling of rejection, distrust, depression, and anger. In return, health problems can be developed such as an upset stomach, headaches, insomnia, rashes, heart disease, stroke, ulcers, and high blood pressure. People can experience stress during a job promotion, new relationship, child birth, or death of a person close to them.

Stress can hinder or help people depending on their reactions to the circumstances of life. It does not matter if all are positive stresses since it adds excitement and anticipation to life. But somehow competitions, deadlines, frustrations, sorrows, and confrontations also add enrichment and depth to life.

You don’t need to get rid of stress. All you need to do is manage it in a way that it can give you benefits.

Remember that…

“Insufficient stress can act as depressants letting you feel dejected or bored. While excessive stress lets you feel stocked.”

To avoid stress build ups, you can try meditation. Besides it being cool to do, you can obtain an immediate calming effect regardless of your meditation posture. In this manner, you can reduce your stress.

1. Practice Your Breathing

Practicing your breathing is the first process you should learn. If you observe that stress is starting to disturb you, just do a couple of light breathing. Concentrate on your breathing quality. Make sure that it’s light and still. Then slowly breathe deeper.

2. Balance your Posture

The next step is to balance your posture and make it even, head up and back straight. Most people who are stressed out often do a slouching posture while frowning.

3. Clear your Thoughts

Start to imagine that you are swimming in relaxing waves. Feel the flowing waves in your consciousness that is taking away all you stress and anxiety. Make sure your body receives the constant flow of the waves.

4. Find the Root Causes and Deal with It Immediately

Acknowledge your stress and review its root causes. This is a very important step. Denying stress in the meditation process is not good. Clearly speak to your mind that…

“The stress is true but you have the capacity to handle it by thinking straight and finding ways to deal and cope up with it immediately.”

5. Repeat the statement for 10 minutes

Repeat this statement during your meditation process for at least ten minutes or more. Then take control of your stress totally. Think of the person who caused you such stress and made you out of control. Control your mind and remove the stress from it.

6. You have the Right to Be a Peaceful and Free Mind

Finally, concentrate on a decision that you have the right to a peaceful and free mind and nobody can say or do anything against this right, as you end the meditation process. Every time you need meditation, just dictate this decision to your mind.

These steps can do something to change your outlook whenever stress disturbs you. Never be afraid to try, just believe on the benefits that it will give you in the end.